Vlad's Faves

Vlad the Inhaler spoke about some of the acts he’s worked with over the years.

Bonobo: “One of my favorite producers. He’s on Ninja Tune, in London. He’s like a blending of soul with EDM and Afrobeat [a style based in Nigeria, identified with Fela Kuti and Tony Allen] mixture, and it’s highly danceable, not abrasive. He also plays his music with a full band. I saw him a number of times, as a fan, before I ever booked him.”

Machinedrum: “He’s kinda been underdogged for a very long time, because I consider his music some of the most forward in every genre. He doesn’t really do the mainstream cut of a genre sound; he does something that’s a little bit more avant-garde on top of every genre. So he does play with house, dubsteppy-type stuff, juke, but he coins it in a way that [always] sounds like him. … Machinedrum, I’ve had back through Jacksonville at least two or three times, including runs to Orlando and Tallahassee.”

Danny Brown: “He’s a rambunctious hip-hop artist.”

Starkey: “One of the more highly respected producers that I know of. He’s taught Ableton at Temple, done big festival tours with big EDM acts, as well as big ‘jamtronica’ acts, so he’s known not only in the EDM crowd, but the festival/hippie crowd.”Break Science: “Amazing band. Adam Deitch is also the drummer for Lettuce, and Borahm Lee used to play keys for the Fugees. Deitch is one of the better drummers in the festival scene, if not the best; he kinda goes across genre. They play a mixture of funky garage, with heavy dubstep — kind of a funk-oriented EDM.”

Om Unit: “He is a jungle/footwork DJ; a lot of my favorite tracks in that genre come from him. He’s also a DMC guy [short for disco mix club, a global DJ battle tournament].”Chrissy Murderbot: “Juke/footwork, hype, harder-style producer from Chicago. Respected in the techlife/juke scene in Chicago, which is hard to do, because it’s a very black-oriented style of EDM. A little more of a club/house style.”

Local Acts

Sir Charles: “Local cat — one of my close homies. We’ve been playing shows together since I first started doing this. His production is very clean; a lot of us get pointers from him on how to do work.”

Irene Pardo: “A regional veteran, from Orlando; she’s been doing drum-and-bass parties for a long time.”

Strife: “You may know him for being a freestyle king; he’s won a number of events. He’d probably be considered the region’s champion battle-rapper. [Note: The author agrees.] Every time he does tracks, I’ve been pretty impressed with his stuff.”

NickFRESH: “Everybody loves NickFRESH. Soul/funk DJ, for years and years; ‘Soul Train’ fanatic. Just a kind, loveable person. He can work any crowd; he has a little bit of everything, so he never gets thrown off.”

Dub Theorist: “A really good friend of mine. He’s what I would call an audiophile. His production style is pretty much free-form IDM [intellectual dance music]. It’s not really patterned, it switches up; sometimes it goes off-time. Kind of an Aphex Twin-oriented style.”

Team Jaguar: “They’re a producer trio from Tallahassee, kind of the DJs of Tallahassee; good friends of mine. They’ve been working Menace Beach up there for the past five years or so, and they host a lot of good music for their weekly nights here, as well.”

Robert Raimon Roy: “Longtime hip-hop artist out of Jacksonville; lives in LA now, getting more recognition as time goes by, but always on the grind. One of his songs was on NPR’s top 100 last year. He’s on Dim Mak Records, which is Steve Aoki’s label; he was the first hip-hop artist on an all-electronic label.”

Paten Locke: “DJ Therapy, as some may know him; one of my favorite hip-hop artists, period. He makes beats, he raps on them, he DJs other people’s music seamlessly and beautifully. I consider him a person I look up to in the region, big-time. He also does an act with Edan, which has been called one of the best hip-hop shows to see in the country, period.”

Dillon: “A good friend of Paten Locke's. They did the ‘Full Plate’ project and a lot of others together; ‘Studies in Hunger’ was an amazing album. He’s in Atlanta now, but we try to look out for each other; he’s definitely put my name in the good spirits out there in Atlanta, which I very much appreciate.”

Giz-Roc: “He was one of my first resident DJs. He’s been in the Jacksonville DJ culture before I was even in the club, but he moved to London for about six years, honed what he wanted to do with electronica, then came back here, started doing shows with the Big Buck$ Crew. He and I kinda walked in on dubstep at the same time; I was really into it, and he was just kinda experimenting with a sound that he thought was interesting, but I needed him to be one of my residents, because he was into it. Bass Nectar has played his edits out, live.”

Chef Rocc: “Part of the Big Buck$ Crew; good friend. I’ve been looking up to his skills for a while. He does a blending of hip-hop with soul and funk, and he’s also recently started doing a little more electronica. Everybody knows Big Kyle.”

Comic: “My favorite recluse! His ear’s been into the sound so close, and he’s never left; a lot of people pulled away from EDM for years, but he’s been with it the whole time. He knows the progression of it, and he embraced every part of it. He moved over to Cardiff in the UK for a while; he’s played some Cannabis Cup parties out there and spread the word for Crunchay for us. He used to lock down the patios for me at TSI, and we’d call it ‘Comic’s Outpost’; he always puts on a good atmosphere.”

Matt Caulder: “One of the first people to spin drum-and-bass in Jacksonville; he and Wes Reed are known for that. He’s a vinyl guy; he always spins vinyl for his sets.”

Stacey Osorio: “Also one of the old-generation cats. I’d say Stacey, Matt, Comic, Giz, Chef Rocc — whether they’ve been doing hip-hop or EDM, they’ve been doing it here for a long time. He does more UK. Funkier sounds, chiller sounds.”Professor Kilmure: “It’s the electronic project for Jess from Juicy Pony. He plays all original tracks that he made; I’d say it’s mostly house-influenced. Always been very supportive.”

Willie Evans Jr.: “Another one of my favorite hip-acts. He’s a nerd; he likes the video games, he likes the comic books and he loves hip-hop, and you can see that in the show. All his albums usually get really good reviews in all the underground hip-hop blogs; I’d say he and Paten Locke are two of the guys who should definitely be household names."